The former Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mr. Musliu Smith has called on the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Ibrahim Idris to make a very strong case to the federal government on the need to provide barracks accommodation for officers and men of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF).
Smith who was speaking at a forum in Lagos recently reminded IGP Idris that as long as he failed to have 50% of his personnel at any one time within the barracks, he would never be able to respond promptly to emergency.
“And apart from that, a lot of personnel who are staying outside the barracks, some of them are tenants to criminals who will give them accommodation free of charge because they know they will always use them anytime they need their assistance. Please that is very important because I know, you don’t have right now, 25% of your personnel in barracks all over the country”, Smith admonished.
He further advised the IGP to always make use of his best men, train his officers and avoid sending personnel who did not fit into a particular sensitive office to man the office on the pretext that they came from the same tribe or religion as him urging him to be fair to all his officers as he would be helping himself by so doing.
The former Police Chief observed that majority of the policemen were ill-trained which according to him was not the fault of the organization saying that it was one of the problems that had been with the force for a long time now which could be traced to paucity of fund.
According to him,”The colleges are there, the training schools are there, they are run down, modern teaching gadgets are not there and apart from that, they capacity they can train any year is limited. You can find some policemen, four to five years, they have not undergone any training.
“Please, we want to be sure that you have the best of men anytime. Please give appropriate attention to the issue of training”.
He pointed out that the riverine areas in the country and the creeks were becoming problems for the whole country as a lot of people had joined kidnapping, abduction business from the areas and that criminals now leave in the riverine areas, moving their victims to the area once they got them alleging that the members of the communities were with them since they were their people, they tend to shied them.
He therefore advised IGP Idris to get a team to help him solve the puzzle posed by the riverine areas in recent times.
“One thing I also want to mention lastly is the issue of infrastructure. Road unites in this country, the road networks, they have many highways, they don’t have feeder roads. A lot of ghettos in this country are the areas the vicious criminals reside, police cannot go there because there is no access road. They come to the city to operate and they go back.
“Please, people who have responsibility of ensuring better planning of our communities, take note of these cities because as long as you have this issues, you will always have crime problem”.
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